NEW DELHI: An agreement has been signed between Toronto and India to engage in mutual co-operation and advance their common interests in the creative screen industries to foster business partnerships, linkages and exchanges.
The Memorandum of Understanding between the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the City of Toronto will act as a catalyst for new investment and knowledge sharing opportunities.
Both parties have also agreed to provide assistance or any facilities necessary for trade missions, summits, seminars, festivals and other similar activities.
Toronto mayor John Tory, Consul General of India in Toronto Akhilesh Mishra, and FICCI-Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, & Comics Forum chairman Dr Ashish Kulkarni signed the document.
"This agreement will help Toronto to access and collaborate with the Indian film industry, the largest producer of films in the world," said Tory. "This agreement will stimulate economic trade and investment in both countries. Toronto's film industry does better each and every year - this will help us continue that trend and keep us on top."
"I would like to applaud the visionary and dynamic leadership of Mayor John Tory, Councillor Thompson and Zaib Shaikh, the City's Film Commissioner and Director of Entertainment Industries, for their efforts to initiate the MoU with FICCI for co-operation in the fields of film, television, visual effects and gaming," said Mishra.
"This is a significant development in the spirit of the India-Canada audio-visual co-production agreement signed in February 2014. I believe the MoU signed today will catalyze co-operation not only between our film industries, but also strengthen ties of culture, tourism and friendship between peoples of India and Canada," added Dr. Kulkarni.
The creative screen industries include location and studio production, post-production, visual effects, animation and interactive/digital media. Toronto is the first municipality in Canada to sign an agreement stemming from an audio-visual, co-production treaty established in 2014 between the governments of India and Canada.
FICCI took a 20-member delegation from Film, Animation, and Visual Effects industry to Toronto from 8 - 13 September to promote audio-visual co-production activities between India and Canada post signing of co-production treaty between the two countries. This was the first such delegation from India after signing of the co-production agreement between the two countries.
